Marketing Pilgrim

You know that you are a major force in business when you go from a fun, social networking company to huge valuations and finally to Washington. Google has shown that they understand the importance of being in the US capital and working the lobbying angle. When there’s enough talk about antitrust and monopoly you need to do that. Facebook’s involvement in DC though goes even further as they talk to the intelligence community.

SocialBeat tells us more

Facebook has been gradually boosting its profile in Washington D.C. over the past year and is on the hunt for a second senior lobbyist to add to its office of four. Disclosures released a few days ago show that, on top of lobbying the usual suspects Internet companies reach out to like the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. senators and representatives, the fast-growing social network has also been busy deepening ties to government intelligence and homeland security agencies.

Do you have 10 minutes to spare? Would you like to help the SEO industry understand exactly where we’re at in 2010? Oh, and would you like to win an iPad and other cool prizes?

You would, huh? Then read on Pilgrim!

SEOmoz is once again taking on the task of surveying the SEO industry and they need your help. All you need do is complete the very simple, 10-minute, online survey and you’ll do your part to help us all!

In particular, the survey will address:

• Who are the people in the SEO community?
• How do they learn about SEO and sharpen their skills?
• How are companies embracing search marketing?
• Which tools and tactics do people in the industry use to support their SEO and social media efforts?

By Sheila Beal

If your brand, business or company seeks to harness the benefits of social media, you need to be aware of some pitfalls to avoid.

While social media can do wonders to help raise awareness and improve the sales of a business, if it’s not done well, it can also come back to haunt you. I’ve gone from being a raving fan of a business to being unlikely to ever patronize that business again, based on their poor social media skills.

Now, I’m not telling you that to make you scared to dip your toes in the social media pool. I’m only telling you this because I want you to be aware of some social media basic skills that can make or break your efforts.

The online space is split up into two pretty distinct groups and the sizes of these two groups are far from equal.

On the one side are the people who use Google every day and for many reasons. Many times these people can get upset because their reliance on Google can cause a major hiccup (go see what Chris Brogan has to say today about this) For the most part, they have come to depend on Google to help run many aspects of their business and personal lives and are happier for it. I fall into that category for sure.

Hulu is second only to YouTube in number of US video streams run on a monthly basis. It has generated more than $100 million in advertising revenue in its short 2-year existence. Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and News Corp also own it. Maybe having News Corp as part of the ownership team is pushing them toward what many may feel is the unspeakable: a paid version.

The LA Times reports

Television executives don’t want to suffer the same fate as music industry or newspapers, which saw users flock to free access to songs, stories and classified ads online — and revenues plummet.

Just a small town TV ad, living in a lonely world
She took the DVR skip button goin’ nowhere
Just a CNN, born & raised on advertising revenue
He took the DVR skip button goin’ nowhere

Apparently TV networks haven’t stopped believing in commercials and CNN in particular is trying its best to ensure they don’t suffer at the hands of your DVR’s “skip” button.

On CNN’s new evening news show “John King, USA,” the show never leaves the screen, even during commercial breaks. Instead, footage of all the paper-shuffling and scrambling around that happens during breaks, runs in a little window at the bottom of the screen.